where stories come to life

It's the Halfway Point!

We’ve reached the halfway point. Yay! Congratulations, wrimos! Whether you have already reached your 50K point like three of our amazing wrimos have, are still writing away, or feeling so far behind that you’ll never catch up, take a moment and pat yourself on the back. Seriously. Stop what you’re doing right now and lift your hand up and give yourself a pat. I’ll wait.

Doesn’t that feel good?

You’ve written words. You’ve got your novel underway. Every word written is an accomplishment! Every. Single. Word! Be proud of yourself. I know I’m proud of each and every one of you! Yes. Even you! The NaNoLansing library has a spot waiting just for your novel.

Perhaps some of you are sailing right along and the words are flowing freely for you. Congratulations. I’m a little bit envious. Perhaps some of you are feeling stuck like me and pushing yourself to write something just to get the “I uploaded words every day badge.” Maybe some of you feel it’s hopeless and have given up. Regardless of where you are right now, don’t give up. Keep writing. Even one sentence is one more sentence than you had before. If you’re stuck on one scene, move to another and go back. It will probably be fresher and easier later.

Perhaps your characters have it too easy? Be mean to them. Give them some obstacle that makes it hard for them to reach their goal. Give them a lot of obstacles. Have them nearly reach their goal and then take it away from them at the last minute. Your plot will get much more interesting and you’ll have much more fun with it.

Need more inspiration?Read our wonderful wrimo-written pep talks – like the fantastic one we have from Jim Hines. (Thanks again, Jim!) He’s always been an inspiration to me. Write one of your own and inspire others – and win that badge for pep talks.

Want to be inspired by a shiny halo and receive your badge for that?You can donate yourself or thanks to the wonderful people who have donated already and have added to the traveling TARDIS, if you are a broke wrimo and would like a halo and the badge that goes with that, please post in the Halo Relocation Program Thread. We currently have 6 halos waiting to be passed on.

Tonight (11-17) with YuOfOwari at AI Fusion at 7 pm. Be sure to let her know you are coming asap because there is only one room that can accommodate 15+ people and it fills up.

Wednesday Night (11-18), I’ll be running a virtual write in from 8 pm to 10 pm. This counts as one of your NaNoLansing Events.

Thursday night/Friday morning (11-19/20) GBJazzman will be hosting a write in at the Westside Denny’s starting at 12:30 am.Saturday (11-21) from 11 am to 2 pm, another ML sponsored write in takes place at the East Lansing Pie Company.

Mark Your Calendars for the TGIO/Going Away Party:Don’t forget to reserve time on Saturday December 5th from 2-5pm to come celebrate another wonderful NaNo. This is also a very special party because the first part of the celebration will be a going away party for Alaina who has decided to pursue more exciting things and will be moving in a few weeks.

WINNING!Starting November 20th, you can upload your novel to officially win and get your shiny purple winner’s banner and goodies. You can still keep writing after that and updating your word count, so don’t worry about that. Be sure to validate your novels. Every year I see people who reached their 50K and never officially won and it’s heartbreaking to see. Don’t let that be you. Validate your novel sooner versus later. And for those of you, like me who aren’t at all at the point to win, now is a good time to be sure your account is set to EST. You will have until 11:59 on 11-30 to validate your word count and win.

As always, write on. Come chat with us in the chat room. Post in the forums and have fun!